1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to team management and, more particularly, to a system and method using generic roles to dynamically create and modify a team-based workflow.
2. Description of Related Art
To compete in highly dynamic domestic and global markets, organizations are increasingly relying on teams to manage their various workflows. The term workflow as used herein includes tasks, procedural steps, organizations or people involved, required input and output information, and tools needed for each step in a business process. Teams such as cross-functional project teams, multi-party program teams, integrated product development teams, and autonomous work teams are relied upon to collaborate and make timely workflow decisions.
Typically, team managers (e.g., program managers) assemble teams, and assign roles and task responsibilities for the workflows. However, the nature and structure of teams are changing to improve organizational agility and effectiveness. Teams can come together and dissolve more swiftly, membership can frequently expand and contract depending on the needs of the workflow, and roles and responsibilities between team members are more regularly swapped as requirements for their talents and skills change.
This constantly changing team environment requires greater flexibility in managing and maintaining team membership, member roles, responsibility assignments, and communication links between team members; as well as an efficient process for decision making.
Conventional systems for team management generally fall into two categories: project management and collaborative management (i.e., groupware). Project management systems primarily schedule, track, and chart the steps in a project as it is being completed. Collaborative management systems facilitate and manage group activities typically by providing scheduling, document sharing, and e-mail capabilities.
These conventional systems not only lack the flexibility that teams require to make frequent changes to membership, roles and responsibilities, communication links, and workflow, but also fail to provide an efficient process for team-based decision making. As a result, conventional systems hinder team adaptability and productivity. Thus, conventional systems do not meet the team management challenges and needs faced by today's organizations.
In both large and small organizations, the division between ‘responsibility’ and ‘accountability’ is often not clear. Many organizations avoid innumerable conflicts by taking the time to make deliberate choices about who will be responsible and accountable for what. A number of organizations use a conventional Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) to clarify those choices.
The conventional RAM is a two-dimensional chart that maps role and responsibility for specific assignments to individuals within an organization. Typically, the RAM is illustrated using a spreadsheet with rows and columns that list team members or departments along one axis, tasks along another axis, and at the intersection of the rows and columns are assigned roles. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional RAM, showing tasks 2 listed down the leftmost column, team participants 4 across the top row, and intersecting cells showing role assignments 6.
The role assignment placed at the intersecting row and column cell on the matrix indicates a particular role (e.g., Approver) and maps team members to their task assignments. In practice, the conventional RAM uses acronyms such as PARIS (i.e., participant, accountable, reviewer, input, sign-off) to represent the different roles involved. Another example, the acronym RACI (i.e., responsible, accountable, consulted, informed), assigns roles by applying an R, A, C, or I to the cells of a matrix that intersect a ‘task’ row with a corresponding ‘participant’ column.
Each task is assigned one ‘accountable’ individual, one ‘responsible’ individual, and others who will be ‘consulted’ or kept ‘informed’ concerning the task. The RAM is a simple mapping tool for achieving team alignment and a common understanding of who does what. In the example of FIG. 1, Joe has been assigned the role of ‘R’ (responsible) for marketing requirements.
In view of the above, there exists a need for a system and method that can dynamically create and modify a team-based workflow in response to changes in the team and business environment.